The war o words preceding the much talked-about strike action expected on Tuesday, September 8, 2020, has intensified as no party is ready to tone down.
Labour (Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC) which denied getting any court order has charged against Gov Nyesom Wike of Rivers State for going to court, while the state government has threatened to press contempt charges against NLC and TUC leaders.
Tactically, the Rivers State government has secured the support of a youth leaders to threaten to sop any street mobilization. Wike is also getting the Industrial Court to issue contempt charge should the strike continue.
On the other hand, organized labour has handed over the coordination of the strike to their national leaders. The situation threatens to be a national crisis and Rivers State is now on hot spot.
The Rivers State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Zacchaeus Adangor, who addressed the media in Port Harcourt said the court would issue contempt charges against labour leaders should they proceed on strike.
A youth leader who hails from same local council area with Gov Wike has threatened against any street protests.
The NLC national president, Ayuba Wada, has responded, saying the Rivers State government would be held responsible for any harm on protesting workers.
He said the protest must continue. All wings of Labour have since been activated such that many services especially fuel supply may be cut off.
Waba urged Wike to rather use the bubbling energy to pay workers (teachers and health workers) their arrears, pay promotions since 2015 and pay pensioners since 2015.
Sources said ego seems to have taken over as no side would want to blink first. Sources close to Labour hinted that allowing the courts to stop the strike would kill the only weapon available to labour, strike, to perish as other state governments and the FG may borrow from the Rivers model. One source said the judge who awarded the injunction knows Labour would not obey it.
On the issue of pride and ego, the former governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers, Dakuku Peterside, has called on Gov Wike to set aside pride and negotiate with the organized labour in the state to avert avoidable controversies and industrial action.
Peterside, who spoke at the weekend, wondered why Gov Wike’s administration was treating workers with so much levity and disdain, giving the fact his government will rely on these same workers to achieve its programmes.
He tasked the governor to look into the genuine concerns of the workers, who he says deserve to be remunerated like their counterparts nationwide following the passage of new minimum wage into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.
